“It almost did,” I admitted. “I was in the hospital for days.”
“What about the fire?” Dice asked. “Do you know whose boat she used?”
“It’s hers. She bought it the day before she tried to burn down the lake house.”
“That explains why we didn’t see her name on the list of registered boats,” Dice said.
“I still can’t believe she did all of this for money. If the goal was to get her inheritance, why didn’t she just marry someone else?” I asked.
“I asked her the same thing,” Sean said. “It did not go over well, and she never gave me an answer. The best I’ve been able to come up with is that she was mentally unstable.”
“Well, I guess that brings me to the other reason I’m here.”
“The divorce?”
“Yes,” I nodded. “My new lawyer is working on it, but we might have to start over with a new filing since the other lawyer withdrew the original one.”
“Like I told the other guy, I’ll sign whatever you want me to,” Sean said. “If you’ll let me know how much this has cost you, I’d like to pay the attorney fees. I’m the one who asked for a divorce in the first place.”
“You know,” I said with a small smile, “that’s how I felt at first. I was pissed that I had to pay for something you did. But now? Now, I’m okay with it. If things hadn’t happened the way they did, I probably wouldn’t be sitting here with Dice.”
“Are you thanking me for cheating on you?” Sean joked.
“Oh, no,” Dice laughed. “You made her a stepmother against her will, and she will never thank you for that.”
Sean covered his face with his hand. “That never occurred to me.”
“It certainly did to me,” I said.
“I’m sorry, Daphne,” he said. “I really am.”
“It’s … it’s not okay, but I think I’ve forgiven you,” I said and redirected the conversation. “There is one other thing I’m curious about. The inheritance stipulations. Why couldn’t she marry a man who had been divorced?”
Sean sighed. “Her family is very wealthy and has been for many generations. Her grandmother remarried after her first husband died. That man was only after her money. He was divorced and running a marry-the-rich-widow scam with his ‘ex-wife.’ He didn’t get away with it, and her grandmother made sure that no one ever would.”
“I’m pretty sure a prenuptial agreement would have prevented anyone from trying to get their money through marriage,” I said.
“Yeah,” Sean agreed. “But rational thinking doesn’t seem to run in their family.”
An awkward silence fell over the room. After a few minutes, I clapped my hands together. “Well, we need to get going. I’m sure my lawyer will be in touch.”
“Where did we land on paying for the divorce?” he asked.
“How about we split it?” I offered.
“That works for me.”
On the way home, I got the feeling that something was bothering Dice. I assumed it had to do with Lewis and Leah, but after several minutes of tense silence, I decided to ask. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Why?”
“I don’t know. You seem tense.”
He exhaled audibly. “I just realized that you can go home now that this is over.”
“Oh,” I said. “I guess you’re right.” It hadn’t occurred to me that I could go home.
“Unless you don’t want to,” he said.